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India Poaches U.S. Executives For Tech Jobs
Wall Street Journal(subscription) ^ | February 22, 2005 | JAY SOLOMON

Posted on 02/22/2005 5:37:59 AM PST by samsonite

NEW DELHI -- For 12 years, Doug Bettinger was a senior finance executive at Intel Corp., working at the U.S. computer-chip maker's offices in Silicon Valley, Arizona and Malaysia. In November, the 37-year-old jumped ship, becoming chief financial officer of Bangalore-based call center operator 24/7 Customer.

"The growth India is experiencing is crazy," says Mr. Bettinger, who now splits his time between 24/7 Customer's offices in Los Gatos, Calif., and Bangalore. "There are lots of opportunities there that you couldn't get at Intel."

Mr. Bettinger is among a growing number of U.S. and Western executives being poached -- not to mention well-paid -- by Indian technology companies trying to globalize their software and outsourcing businesses. In recent months, Indian businesses have hired dozens of executives from companies including Electronic Data Systems Corp., Deloitte Consulting LLP, McKinsey & Co., Accenture Ltd. and Ernst & Young LLP

Headhunters working for Indian companies say their clients have to pay a premium to attract U.S. talent due to their companies' lower profiles and limited track records. In one recent case, an Indian company offered an American executive a base salary of $350,000 plus a potential bonus of $2 million over two years to join its U.S. operations, according to an executive with knowledge of the deal. The executive's salary at his U.S. company was $300,000 annually plus stock options equal to around $1.2 million over four years.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: globalism; india; it; tech; trade
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1 posted on 02/22/2005 5:38:00 AM PST by samsonite
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To: samsonite

Pack up the Elephant...and put a Cow Guard on the front..


2 posted on 02/22/2005 5:51:31 AM PST by Dallas59 (Bush said the "F" word 27 times January 20th, 2005!)
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To: samsonite
I guess 300 K wasn't enough for him, I should have majored in finance not engineering. What a fool I was.
3 posted on 02/22/2005 6:04:52 AM PST by austinite
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To: austinite

Gimme a plate of Tandoori chicken to go...


4 posted on 02/22/2005 6:19:16 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: samsonite

We're poaching their doctors; so fair is fair;
I suppose it's "whatever the market will bear"...

(Just don't ask me to live over there!)


5 posted on 02/22/2005 6:27:15 AM PST by Migraine
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To: samsonite
This is likely a smart move on the part of the Indian companies, assuming of course that they are reasonably good at choosing executives.
6 posted on 02/22/2005 6:33:40 AM PST by snowsislander
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To: austinite
What a fool I was...

I feel the same way. I do get a good feeling about this one, however. If all the executives who sold us out now move to India, we can rebuild our own companies without those traitors in high places.

7 posted on 02/22/2005 6:43:12 AM PST by GingisK
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To: austinite
I should have majored in finance not engineering.

When we went to college, everyone wanted to get a degree in physics.  Most of us couldn't hack it so we switched to engineering.   Half couldn't even make it there and settled for business admin.   Decades later, the MBA' s hire engineers who out-earn physicists.

8 posted on 02/22/2005 6:49:10 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: GingisK
without those traitors

It's kind of hard to keep this straight.  An American company that hires off shore labor is un-Amercan, and a US citizen who accepts wages from an overseas company is a traitor.

What am I missing? 

9 posted on 02/22/2005 6:53:27 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: Dallas59

Yawn, right.... a terribly stereotypical reaction


10 posted on 02/22/2005 8:25:00 AM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11)
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To: expat_panama
What am I missing?

The concept that American companies exist only to subsidize American lifestyles. ;)

11 posted on 02/22/2005 8:27:18 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves
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To: samsonite

Basing this just on the excerpt as the article requires registration.

I'm wondering what corporate secrets these guys take with them. They may have had to sign agreements of silence when they signed on in the U.S. but how proveable/enforceable is that in India?

Also seems to me a lot of insitutional memory, let alone secrets, is walking out the door.


12 posted on 02/22/2005 9:49:27 AM PST by Oatka
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To: GingisK

the problem is - the entire industry will have moved to a lower cost basis (except in the area of executive compensation of course) - and any US resurgence will have to compete against that, securing venture capital and investment against that backdrop. its going to be very difficult.

basically, we are seeing the death march for these industries in the US, and I don't see any way its going to turn around. the enrollment into colleges tells you what you need to know, if it weren't for foreign nationals attending US engineering schools, many would have already closed their programs.


13 posted on 02/22/2005 9:54:17 AM PST by oceanview
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To: expat_panama
When we went to college, everyone wanted to get a degree in physics. Most of us couldn't hack it so we switched to engineering. Half couldn't even make it there and settled for business admin. Decades later, the MBA' s hire engineers who out-earn physicists.

Yeah, tell me about it. I have a PhD in molecular physics. Some of my grad school buds are day traders, some are IT contractors, some are high-school teachers.

Just repeat: we don't have enough science grads in the US, that's why we have to offshore everything.

14 posted on 02/22/2005 10:15:05 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

I was on a thread with some fellow a couple of days ago who was proclaming his head hunter friend could not find anyone to fill IT jobs. I tried to explain to him that so many people have simply left the field and moved onto other things, while the college enrollment rate has fallen off the cliff, that this is what his friend was seeing - it was not some new emergence of a tech jobs boom.


15 posted on 02/22/2005 10:26:40 AM PST by oceanview
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To: grey_whiskers
that's why we have to offshore everything.

That's the slogan.  OTOH, those of us who make a living running companies have to look at this the way you look at molecules.   What we hear at the bowling alley isn't worth a damn if the hard measurements say otherwise.   The hard reality is that the "we" does not include all Americans.   It's not even "most", and of the few who are offshoring are not doing it because they have to, they're doing it because most of us are paying them to offshore.  

Imagine, those evil offshoring CEO's are only following our orders.   Some say that makes us traitors.  Wait, the article (India Poaches U.S. Executives For Tech Jobs) is not about the evil Americans who hire slimy foreigners, it's about slimy foreigners hiring 'sell-out traitor' Americans (re posts 7 and 9).

Ya know, if it's not one thing it's another.

16 posted on 02/22/2005 10:39:47 AM PST by expat_panama
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To: oceanview
How willing are the companies to train people?

Do they require experience?

Full Disclosure: I have a PhD in molecular collision theory.

I have had prospective hiring managers tell me to my face that I was unable to learn the tools they needed.

They have only their own dishonesty and/or stupidity to blame.

17 posted on 02/22/2005 11:04:14 AM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: grey_whiskers

for programmers, its a total racket. a US programmer with years of experience, will be nitpicked over the slightest "lack of experience" in their resume - but they will gladly hire an H1B with an inflated resume in the same discipline, because they are willing to accept a lower salary.


18 posted on 02/22/2005 11:11:09 AM PST by oceanview
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To: expat_panama
What am I missing?

First these guys destroy the job market in this country by outsourcing, then move overseas for their own employment since they can make better money working for the companies to which they outsourced. You don't see this as "me" over country?

19 posted on 02/22/2005 2:32:20 PM PST by GingisK
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To: oceanview
...we are seeing the death march for these industries in the US...

Its an outside chance, but once those guys all move overseas perhaps those of us who prefer to make something of our own Nation will enbargo the hell out of them. This assumes the remaining folks start voting to protect thier own economy and way of life.

20 posted on 02/22/2005 2:35:10 PM PST by GingisK
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